


smile for the camera (and for you)

by blacksuns (orphan_account)



Category: The Boyz (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M, Mentions of Internet Celebrities, YouTube, chaotic gays
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-02
Updated: 2019-08-02
Packaged: 2020-07-29 03:22:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20075302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/blacksuns
Summary: “Please be my boyfriend for the next few months. I need your help to pull a publicity stunt on my subscribers.”





	smile for the camera (and for you)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hwallrics](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hwallrics/gifts).

> Hello, dear recipient! I tried my best to stick to what you originally requested: college/university + fake dating, though I did add the YouTube element because I couldn't think of a good enough of an idea to write. MoonBae is quite out of my comfort zone, but I tried my best to write something along the lines of what you described! I really hope you like this! I'm sorry for the slight delay! This grew way out of my control and ended up longer than I anticipated, but I think that's a good thing. I hope you like it! ♡

“Okay, dude, I know what I’m about to ask sounds _absolutely insane_, but please hear me out! You’re literally the only person I trust enough to ask this sort of thing. Jake, please, I’ll film and edit your videos for the next 6 months if you help me out with this one. I’ll do anything, and you know I mean _anything_, if you help me out with this one.”

Kevin Moon stops blabbering for a millisecond _(thank God)_ to recover his breath, and Jacob Bae just knows he’s walking around in circles in his living room as they speak because Kevin is _that_ predictable and unpredictable at the same time. Jacob sighs, looking at the alarm clock in his nightstand, thin neon letters shining shyly in the darkness of Jacob’s childhood bedroom. 3 in the morning. Classic Kevin Moon behavior. “Please be my boyfriend for the next few months. I need your help to pull a publicity stunt on my subscribers.”

“Kevin, first of all, what the fuck? Second… Do you even know what time it is here?”

“Wait a second. Were you asleep? Man-”

“Yeah, my good dude, it’s 3am in Vancity, and I’m going back to sleep.” Jacob groans, flattening out his pillow, “Call me back during business hours in Canadian time and maybe I’ll _consider_ helping you trick your poor subscribers yet again. Good night, Kevin.”

Jacob hangs up the phone and goes back to sleep. He’s too tired, too groggy in the midst of sweet summer dreams, to deal with Kevin’s insane ideas and plans of tricking his subscribers into another social experiment of sorts. He can consider taking part in whatever terrible social experiment idea Kevin has in mind in the morning.

* * *

Turns out that, much to Jacob’s surprise, last night’s middle of the night call wasn’t some sort of feverish dream his imagination fabricated, or an illusion created by his romance starved brain — Kevin Moon, his best friend and fellow YouTube creator, wants him to pretend to be his boyfriend for God knows how long to study his subscribers’ reaction and post-announcement behavior. He’s curious to see how his fanbase will react, and if they will treat him any differently now that they’ll know he’s gay.

It’s June, _aka_ Pride Month, and with other YouTube creators posting their coming out videos and sharing their stories, Kevin thought it would be fitting that he, like the closeted baby gay that he is, would jump on the bandwagon and also come out to his millions of subscribers during Pride Month just because it’s fitting. There’s nothing like hitting the jackpot with the YouTube algorithm and getting a video that would otherwise get somewhere around 500 to 800 thousand views to 5 million views in the span of a week, and for someone like Kevin, who is so curious as to how the algorithm works and why some videos get picked to be recommended to viewers outside from his subscribers, hitting the algorithm is a constant goal he and his team work toward. It would also boost his channel a bit, bringing in a new stream of curious subscribers, that would venture in the rabbit hole that is Kevin’s YouTube channel, therefore increasing his overall watch time and boosting his views and comments, too. It would also benefit Jacob’s channel, whose social media platforms are considerably smaller than Kevin’s, so this is a _seemingly _win-win situation for both of them.

Don’t get Jacob wrong here; he has helped Kevin organize and structure many of his videos before, he’s participated in every part of the creative process that goes behind putting together a 15-minute-long YouTube video several times. He knows the work Kevin puts into every single one of his videos, and he’s always more than willing to help, just like Kevin is always willing to lend him a helping hand when filming and editing hours kind of mesh together due to business trips and collaborations and Jacob needs to post a video in his scheduled update time or else his entire upload schedule will crash.

They’re friends, very good friends, but helping out a friend with work related stuff is different than helping Kevin lie to his audience for views. There’s only _so much_ Jacob will do for clicks — overly exposed thumbnails, clickbait titles, an exaggerated amount of tags, he’s done all of that. But knowingly lying to an audience of 4.8 million people for _views_ is crossing the line.

“So let me get this straight.” Jacob says, gaze shifting from the bowl of cereal in front of him and the image of Kevin in the darkness of his room, finessing some last bits and pieces of his video before he uploads it the next morning, fully energized and probably more awake than Jacob, who just had two cups of coffee. “You want my help to pull a publicity stunt on your subscribers so you can study their behavior and how differently they’ll treat you because they’ll know you’re gay. And then we’ll fall in love like we always do in MoonBae fanfiction and go from YouTuber friends to YouTuber boyfriends.”

“Well, when you say it like that it sounds really bad.” Kevin grumbles. “But is it that bad, really? People already say we act like we’re dating. It wouldn’t be too different. We wouldn’t have to do anything we don’t do already. We’re neighbors, so it really doesn’t take you any time to go from your place to mine. You just take a flight of stairs and you’re here. So that’s already done. And kiss… Well, we don’t have to kiss on camera. You know YouTube is homophobic. Don’t wanna get my channel terminated for kissing my boyfriend on camera or whatever, my subscribers will understand that. I’m sure yours will too. Come on, Jake. It will be easy-peasy, lemon squeezy. They’ll eat that shit up. MoonBae, their favorite internet couple, becoming a real thing. They’ll love it. Love_ us_.”

“I can’t believe you’re asking me to help you pull a publicity stunt on your subscribers.” Jacob sighs. “Really. Out of the all the things you could possibly ask me, you ask me to fake date you for YouTube views. And you expect me to say yes.”

“So… are you in?”

“I have some conditions.” He says. “No extreme PDA on social media. Most of my audience are teens and they don’t need to see us sucking face when they first open their subscription page. I’ll kiss you for Instagram and Snapchat stories, though. We’ll break up before Christmas, so I don’t have to explain to my mom why the entire internet knew about my relationship and she didn’t. And you’ll pay for my plane tickets for VidCon. I want first class.”

“First class tickets will cost me like, 2 viral videos worth of AdSense.”

“Take it or leave it, _honey_.”

“Fine.” Kevin agrees, after much thinking if he has the money to splurge on round way first class tickets for both of them. “My conditions. We’ll film relationship related videos, like the boyfriend tag and reading KevCon fanfiction together, and I’ll share the AdSense revenue for those videos with you, of course. I will also make a video on our break up so I can milk this experience until the very last drop.”

“Fair enough. If we can make money out of this, then I’m all for it.”

A pause. “I have a question. Why me of all of your YouTube friends, though? You’re pretty popular. I’m sure any of your other friends would do that for you.”

Kevin takes a deep breath, looking away from his editing software to look at Jacob’s swollen face through the phone camera. “Well. It’s a lot easier with you, because we’re best friends and we’re also neighbors when you’re here for school, so we see each other a lot, which makes things very easy when it comes to filming and collaborating. I can just walk up a flight of stairs with my camera and my tripod and film at your place. Heck, I don’t even have to change to go film with you, I can just go on my underwear, which is _fucking awesome,_ if you’d ask me. Also, this might sound odd because of the timing, but I really like you, man. You’re my best friend. I don’t think I can act as freely as I do when I’m around you with other people. Plus, we already spend so much time together already that it’s very easy for our subscribers to think there’s something going on in between us. They’re used to seeing us together, they won’t suspect it’s a publicity stunt. I mean, I could have asked Juyeon or whatever, but it wouldn’t be as effective. They know when I’m up to shit.”

Jacob shrugs. “Okay, love. We can do that. Let me know when you post your coming out video so I can hype you up on Twitter.”

“Aw, babe, that’s so sweet of you.” He fake coos, going back to distorting his face on FaceTune for his vlog #127 thumbnail. “Will do, though. I’ll make a video announcing our relationship too. Coming out video on Friday, MoonBae being canon on Saturday. Or should I make a MoonBae cute moments compilation and write on a black matte layer _‘yes, I hugged and kissed your oppa and I’m also dating him, what are you gonna do about it’?_ My Saturday videos are getting a lot of views, for some reason.”

“Commentary channels will come for your ass if you do that. They’ll call you the epitome of lazy content being successful if you compile our cute couple moments together.”

“Compiling _all_ of our cute moments? That’s gonna take me fucking forever to compile, we have over 50 videos together at this point. Not counting cameos and interactions in other people’s channels. How is that lazy if I’m gonna spend hours compiling and editing footage?” He whines. “I can’t stand commentary channels. They’re literal vultures waiting for other YouTubers to fuck up so they can come and monetize our fuck ups and make fun of us while they’re at it.”

Jacob laughs at the comparison. “Don’t let them get to your head. That’s exactly what they want. I’ll protect you from commentary channels, babe.”

“Your bravery is very much appreciated. Well, I’m gonna hang up now, lovely, I’m off to sleep. Good night, honey boo.”

* * *

Kevin’s video comes out on Friday, just like expected. Jacob watches some of it on his way to the airport, and the video itself is really well produced — well, it’s Kevin Moon, so really, what did he expect? — and the storyline is very coherent, too. He sees some people in the comments saying it looks like Eugene Yang’s coming out video had a baby with Dan Howell’s, and Jacob sees why; it’s poetic and artistic like Eugene’s, with the addition of heartfelt lyrics and his emotional singing, and snarky but still unremarkably funny like Dan’s. The comment section is flooded with supportive messages from his fans and supporters, and Jacob is happy for him. The video hits the jackpot of YouTube algorithm and it goes viral; when Jacob lands in Korea, the video has already amassed 1 million views in the span of a Vancouver-Seoul connection.

Coming out is hard. Jacob never felt the urge to do so on the internet, because his sexuality is, well, _his_ and his business to mind alone. It isn’t up to anyone else but him to figure it out, and if he’s being honest, he might never figure it out, but it’s not all that important to him right now. Sexuality is fluid, feelings are complicated, and Jacob is a hot mess when it comes to those two things. He’s kissed people; some were boys, some were girls, some weren’t either, and at times he liked it, others he didn’t. Feelings are a whole new level of complicated because they’re so fluid and volatile and a whole fucking mess and at times he wishes it was as easy to fall out of love with Kevin Moon as easily he fell in.

Oh. Yeah. There’s also that. The whole _actually_ being in love with your YouTuber best friend while pulling a publicity stunt on their fanbases by using the romantic relationship their fans and Jacob himself very much dream it was true as clickbait thing. The overused and overdone fanfiction trope where one best friend pins over the other and it takes them fake dating to realize their feelings for each other and start dating for real repeats itself in real life. Jacob wishes his life was a Twitter AU so he would at least know there is a happy, cliché ending waiting for them after 300 updates. But in this universe, Kevin’s announcing their relationship will go live the next day and the entire internet will _(hopefully)_ start believing they’re a real, authentic couple.

He prays to the Twitter AU gods to give him the happy ending he deserves after pining over Kevin for so fucking long. He deserves it.

* * *

Something leads Jacob to Kevin’s place the second he gets home. Maybe it’s because his fridge is empty and he knows for sure Kevin will have food; Kevin has been teasing his subscribers about a collaboration with a big _mukbang_ channel for his first ever _mukbang_, but Jacob is no regular subscriber, so he already knows the creator in question is Ju Haknyeon from Haknyeon Eats, and as the name suggests, Haknyeon eats. _A lot._ Maybe he’s suddenly unused to being alone after spending the last month or so at home with his family — it’s weird to come back home and be scared of the random noises in his own kitchen because he knows it’s not his father going for a midnight snack, but either robbers or the ghosts that haunt his apartment. Maybe he just misses him. Who knows? Jacob clearly doesn’t because he’s lost complete notion of time; it’s 8 am (which is one of the very few hours of the day Kevin actually sleeps) and he’s knocking on his best friend’s door just to see his stupid face. There’s nothing that spells love more than missing Kevin’s face to the point FaceTime calls and pictures on Instagram don’t do it anymore.

“I think my kitchen is haunted.” It’s the first thing he says when Kevin opens the door in all the glory of his maple leaf printed boxers and tank top, hair disheveled and eyes puffy from sleep. “I keep hearing noises.”

“Okay…?”

“Can I crash here? I don’t wanna die in my sleep just yet. And I can’t shower either, I’m out of water for some reason.” He pulls out a bag full of maple syrup cream cookies. Kevin’s eyes sparkle at the sight of sweets. “I got you your favorite cookies in exchange for a night on your couch.”

“Pfft. _My couch._ Yeah, right. As if I would let you sleep on my couch after a 12-hour flight. Come in. I’ll get you a towel. I’m not letting you sleep in my bed smelling like this, though. You know where the bathroom is. Help yourself.”

“Are you telling me I’m stinking? You’re so romantic, Kev, I swear.”

“Yes. Please take a shower so we can go to sleep. Haknyeon gets here at 3 and I need to be rested enough to go through 2 filming sessions. Please.”

“Okay, okay, I’m going.”

* * *

“Jake. Honey. Love.” Kevin’s voice sounds like it’s speaking to him somewhere in Jacob’s dreams, behind clouds of his subconscious, but a firm yet soft grip on his arm proves it to be very, very real. “Haknyeon is here. We’ll start filming now. I left some water and aspirin on the nightstand for you, I know you get headaches after long flights. Plus you’re dealing with a 16-hour difference from Canada right now, your body is probably confused. Go back to sleep. I just wanted to check up on you.”

Jacob is too groggy to remember, but if he isn’t completely delusional, he’s almost sure Kevin _kissed_ him before going back to his impromptu studio in the living room. Just the thought of it gets his ears flushed red.

* * *

Monday mornings are, according to Jacob’s schedule, reserved for sleeping in and letting his body adjust to the time zone. But Kevin’s filming schedule doesn’t agree with that. They’re off to Younghoon and Sangyeon’s wedding the following week and therefore won’t have time to film for the entire week they’ll be away, which means pre-filming videos and editing them just in time for regular uploads. Sure, they could go one week without posting any videos, but it’s crucial for them, as content creators at the peak of their careers, to be at least timely consistent. Plus, their videos aren’t the type of videos that take too much time to film, they can probably get away with things as little as sitting on a couch and talking to the camera, like the good old couple vloggers that they are since Kevin’s video went up last night, and editing together bits and pieces of footage accumulated in the days they aren’t filming their main videos for the week. They just need a good camera, a stable tripod and a decent microphone and they should be good to go.

First, they set up the filming equipment — finding good lighting at this time of the year isn’t hard because, well, it’s summer and natural light is far too superior to be compared to studio lights, but they do need to work on an angle that’s flattering for both of them. They set the tripod and the camera by Kevin’s living room window and they try to arrange the couch so they could sit down, but turns out the Sun is angling in a weird way outside because of the time that causes the tripod to create a weirdly shaped shadow right on Jacob’s face, so they settle for a lower tripod setting and sit on the floor.

Jacob suggests they work on a storyline for how their relationship evolved from best friends to boyfriends. There aren’t really that many tangents that story could possibly go, so they go for something that sounds believable and something their subscribers would eat up easily. Friends who fell in love and decided to keep it a secret until this very day, afraid to announce it to the world because 1) homophobes in the media are a thing, and having their names dragged through the mud so early into a relationship would possibly affect them negatively and 2) not everything that goes on in their lives needs to be announced on the internet. Some things can, and should, stay in between them. They establish they’ve been dating for a little less than a year, that they still haven’t introduced each other to their families because of the distance but their families are aware of each other’s existence — heck, Kevin’s mom loves Jacob to the point she calls Kevin to ask him about Jacob, and so are their friends. They agree to disclose to their closest friends about the stunt; Jacob tells Jaehyun, Hyunjoon and Sunwoo, arguably his closest friends, and Kevin tells Changmin, Chanhee and Juyeon. Just so Chanhee, from New Shot, wouldn’t post an entire video debunking their relationship the moment Kevin’s video went live because he’s Kevin’s best friend and there is _no way in hell_ he wouldn’t know about their relationship. Also to save themselves from earning themselves an episode on Sunwoo’s series called, ‘Cringey Couples Roast’ from Sunwoo Reacts. Sunwoo is young, but he’s brutal. Kevin would most definitely cry if Sunwoo roasts him too hard.

Kevin saves the video file as “How I Started Dating Your Favorite Oppa [NOT CLICKBAIT]. It’s only fitting.

* * *

It’s Monday evening. They have High School Musical on, lazing on the couch after filming 3 videos (1 for Jacob’s channel and 2 for Kevin’s), which is a pretty usual activity for them to unwind after a long day, and it’s all good and familiar and comfortable, except Kevin is sulking, which is pretty unusual.

“Did you know I was gay when we first met?”

“Mmm. I didn’t really think you were straight, if it helps. But I never put much thought into it.” Jacob points out, nonchalantly opening a bag of Doritos on top of Kevin’s pants so the crumbs don’t fall on his lap. Kevin makes him a face Jacob doesn’t know how to describe with otherwise, a “Kevin” face. “It’s not like it was any of my business, anyway. I mean, of course, I was happy you felt comfortable enough around me to come out, but you never had to. You’d still be my friend.”

“Really?” Kevin asks in genuine surprise. “You know, I was looking at the comments under my coming out video and I don’t know, I just saw so many people saying they already knew I was gay or something along those lines that it’s got me thinking… Do you think my audience grew so much in the last couple of months because I was being openly less heteronormative? Like, doing and saying things that are stereotypically gay. Do you think my subscribers only like me because they thought I was gay all along? Even if they’re right.”

_Ouch._ Now that’s something Jacob had never thought of before. If people, his own subscribers, only liked him because they thought he was gay. It’s quite a painful and sad thing to be thinking about, pondering if their audiences only followed them for the prospect of _shipping_ them with each other and their other friends, and Jacob doesn’t want Kevin to be sad, so he just wraps his arms around his shoulder and brings him closer in an attempt to comfort him. “I wouldn’t know what goes on in their minds, Kev. But don’t think too much about it. Your sexuality shouldn’t matter to anyone but yourself. You chose to disclose it to your audience, yes, but that doesn’t mean they’re only following you for that. They follow you because they like your content and because they like you for being you. Don’t overthink it. I’m pretty sure they like you for the same reasons I do.”

“Thank you.” Kevin sniffles, snuggling closer to him and staring at Zac Efron’s baby face on the screen, “Thank you, Jake. It means a lot. I really hope you’re right.”

* * *

MoonBae’s video — yes, MoonBae, Jacob likes it better than KevCob (Kevin’s idea) and Canada Bros, Can Bros for short, because shipping a couple called _brothers_ is weird and makes him slightly uncomfortable — are doing pretty well with the algorithm and the general public. There is more MoonBae fanmade content than ever before, their AO3 tag is almost reaching the 3,000 works mark and looking up for their ship name on Twitter results in thousands and thousands of tweets talking about them and how much people want a relationship just like theirs. The comments under their most recent videos, even the ones where it’s just Kevin or Jacob doing their own things, are just people congratulating them for being brave enough to come out and openly talk about their relationship on the internet.

People are loving them. The internet loves them. There are, of course, conspiracy theories and lengthy videos about their relationship being a stunt and some basically accuse them of queerbaiting their subscribers for views, which is fair criticism. The like and dislike ratio seems to disagree with those who openly dislike them, with a massive amount of dislikes when compared to the likes. The experiment so far is being a huge success.

The internet fell for the publicity stunt just like Kevin predicted — there’s nothing that brings more subscribers and views than an equally attractive couple of young men that seem so disgustingly in love with each other it’s almost _sweet_. Their channels are growing at rates never seen before, despite being at their very peak, with videos going to the trending page left and right, growing steadily and consistently. The effects of this boom will eventually wear off, they know, and it’s a little weird to see their subscriber count change so drastically in such a short amount of time. The MoonBae shippers are growing, commenting under their videos that they’re so grateful for being able to see the teeny tiny details of their relationship, and as for their older subscribers, they are thankful for being able to witness love blooming in between them through the years.

Not to brag, but the publicity stunt is a definite success.

* * *

Younghoon and Sangyeon’s wedding happens in some paradisiacal resort in the Maldives. It’s offseason, due to the monsoon season and constant rainfall, but they do find the right places to relax and bond with their friends over tropical drinks and 30 degrees average weather. Jacob and Kevin know many of the guests, many of them being fellow YouTube creators and social media influencers since this wedding, in particular, is mostly just for show; their _real_ wedding was a closed ceremony with their closest friends and family members somewhere in Europe. This one is for the clicks and for their subscribers to enjoy, mostly, for them to feel special and included as a part of their lives, and Jacob admires how good Younghoon and Sangyeon became at making their followers feel so important to them through the years. To the point they can see real footage of their wedding, and experience for themselves the beauty of their relationship.

As public figures, it’s hard enough to keep many aspects of their private lives a secret from the internet and the media. Younghoon and Sangyeon are a couple, _yes,_ but they’re also business partners who work and live together. They’re a business-driven, work-oriented couple, that took the internet by storm with viral video after viral video a few years ago, who managed to establish a solid 10 million subscribers fanbase throughout the years with much work put into their channel and their videos.

This is their very first trip together as an official internet couple, and they make sure to record every single moment of it so they can make a travel vlog on it later so they can start showing the world how beautiful they are together. They buy matching ties and cufflinks last minute and improvise matching boutonnieres with flowers they picked out of the resort’s garden. They watch their friends confess their undying love for each other in this pearly sand beach as the Sun sets behind them. Jacob and Kevin cry, because Jaehyun and Sangyeon’s love is so beautiful, and because Kevin is so overwhelmingly happy for them, on Kevin’s end.

They take pictures together with their friends, making sure to take many pictures of their matching outfits to show off to their followers. They hold hands under the table as they eat. They hug while taking pictures. They kiss when everyone’s looking. They kiss when no one is looking, too.

Weddings are fun. Life is good. They’re in the Maldives celebrating the love and success of two people they love. Kevin is kissing Jacob a lot more than what they agreed to, but it’s not like Jacob is opposed to them, anyway.

* * *

VidCon goes an uneventful as it usually goes, but there are a lot more people interested in them than the other times they went. They take pictures with their fans, give out crappy autographs on homemade posters of them and even sign someone’s shirt with a fanart of the two of them kissing. They hang out with other creators in the creator’s lounge, attend the terrible after party there is every year and have one too many drinks to the sound of the most generic pop songs, and have to endure one or two fellow YouTuber musical performance, to which they drink more neon looking cocktails. Gabbie Hanna sucks at singing and Jake Paul thinks he’s _the_ shit when he can’t even form a sentence properly, but don’t tell them that. Beefing with is something they try their bests to avoid, because it isn’t worthy, and they know how defensive their fans can get. Especially MoonBae shippers.

They get way too flirty with each other on their way back to their room, and in the midst of, they might have kissed. Might as in definitely have kissed. Jacob kissed Kevin first and Kevin kissed. Once, twice, thrice. They lay down on their king bed and kiss each other good night.

When they wake up the next morning, heads spinning and minds clouded, they act like nothing happened, which is undeniably a bad idea.

They don’t talk about it, which is even worse.

* * *

People do treat them differently, after all. They’re not Jacob and Kevin, friends and neighbors who collaborate every once in a while; they’re a whole package now. They’re a buy one, get one free kind of deal to a point a lot of their new subscribers only care about them when they’re together, hence why their regular videos get regular amounts of views and comments, but videos that feature each other have a lot more views. It’s oddly uncomfortable to witness how his fanbase went from people who cared and supported him to people who only cared about him and his relationship, to see how people are slowly reducing him to being an accessory to Kevin, or just someone in a relationship. Like the only thing important about his existence is that he’s dating a fellow YouTuber, who people happen to like.

Jacob doesn’t like it. It isn’t doing much good to his self-esteem, so he stops reading comments and tweets altogether. It’s good for Kevin and his social experiment because their subscribers are acting just like he expected them to, and his social experiment has been going wonderfully. Everything he predicted is turning out to be true. People do care more about them now that they’re in a relationship. People _do_ treat them differently. People do talk more about them than before, which is a weird thing to get used to. Jacob isn’t used to be under the public eye or having people other than his fanbase talk about him.

It’s weird, really, to see how much people suddenly care about you because of your relationship status.

* * *

Lee Jaehyun celebrates his 22nd birthday on a stuffy Friday in one of the most expensive clubs in Seoul. Jaehyun is one of their mutual friends, who Jacob met through Kevin, who he met through Juyeon. Long story short, Jaehyun and Juyeon are dating though they make a very good job at pretending they’re not; Jaehyun is a model in one of the biggest agencies in Korea and his face can be seen in almost every corner of the city, either in billboards or convenience stores or bus stops, and there is no way he’ll be able to keep his job (or his career, for that matter) if his agency found out he’s dating another man. There are rumors and speculations, of course, because they’re famous and successful and what tabloid doesn’t absolutely love to nose in people’s private lives and try to ruin their careers for clicks? Jacob and Kevin know the struggle _way_ too well.

Jaehyun reserved the entire VIP area for this party simply because he can and because he likes pissing paparazzi off, being in public spaces but knowing they can’t get too close to him without being escorted out by his security team is the biggest driving force behind his seemingly cocky aura. According to him, _you only turn 22 once_, and he wants to make the most out of it, so he invited a few of his closest friends to celebrate with him as he grew another year older, and what better way of doing so than getting drunk of expensive champagne and overpriced vodka?

They bond over work talk, sub celebrity gossip and embarrassing stories, trying to speak louder than the music and awkwardly dancing to similarly sounding EDM music in the middle of the VIP area couches. They laugh at Juyeon’s shameless attempt to give Jaehyun a lap dance, but he’s drunk, so Jaehyun carefully pushes him away and urges him to sit down and rest. He’s asleep 5 minutes after, and Jaehyun just laughs, taking off his blazer and covering Juyeon with it. Jacob thinks it’s cute.

Jaehyun slides an arm around Jacob’s waist, pinching his side lightly before handing him a glass of champagne. “Hey there, handsome. You’re awfully quiet for a party, you know? When we were roommates, I remember having to babysit drunk you quite often. Is this what being 22 is actually like? Being old and boring?”

“Ah. There you are, my beloved best friend. I missed having you call me old all this time you were away in Europe.” Jacob punches him lightly. “But you’re old too now. How does it feel to be 22?”

“Oh, please, don’t remind me. I already had Juyeon say he found a white hair the other day. Aging is a nightmare.” He says. “It’s been a while since we last talked. I worry for you, you know? You don’t tell me anything anymore. And you’re always too busy to hang out with me. Am I, perhaps, too boring for your crazy internet celebrity life?”

“You know it’s not like that. I’m a busy man. So are you.” Jacob nudges him in the arm, twirling the maraschino cherry left in his empty cocktail cup by the stem. “You’ve got a boyfriend to take care, too.”

“So do you,” Jaehyun says affectionately, looking over his shoulder to stare at the cute image of Kevin and Juyeon asleep on the couch, drooling over each other. “How is that coming along, anyway?”

“It’s… okay. I don’t wanna talk about it, though. Today is about you.” He sighs, chugging down the champagne Jaehyun brought him. “Tell me what’s been going on in this exciting supermodel life of yours.”

“Eh, it’s work. It’s fine. I got you gifts from Europe. But I won’t give them to you so easily. You, my dear friend,” Jaehyun presses his index finger into Jacob’s chest, “need to clear out your schedule and come hang out with me. Like the good old times.”

“Okay. I can do that. Now go back to your party, man. You only turn 22 once. You don’t wanna miss out any moment of this.”

* * *

Summer holidays end sooner than they realize, which means going back to routine with full-time classes and tighter filming and editing schedules. It also means they can lay off each other for the time being, because they’re both busy university students who also run YouTube channels for fun, and the couple content is getting a little saturated in their subscribers’ opinion — it’s the infamous, _you’re in love, we get it, can we please talk about something else now?_ — and it’s good to switch things up a bit from the lovey-dovey content. Jacob’s upload schedule goes down from 3 videos a week to 2, one vlog on Wednesday and either a song cover or a guitar tutorial goes up on Saturday. Kevin’s upload schedule remains the same, though most of his videos are pre-filmed on his off days and edited the day before uploading.

Vlogging content is getting sparser as the semester progresses, and this is why many content creators don’t find vlogging on the long-run sustainable. No one has a life interesting enough to the point there will always be something interesting or funny to make it through the ruthless cuts of rough editing, and as a full-time university student, Kevin doesn’t have a life all that interesting. It’s his personality and bubbliness that makes him stand out from the countless vloggers who post similar content, really.

They go out a lot, still, but their schedules are getting progressively more packed, which also means MoonBae content coming from them is also getting rarer, though their subscribers seem to love their little couple vlogs every once in a while. It makes it feel more special, now that they (the subscribers) don’t have it all the time. Like they’re so busy, but still can take out some time to film together for their fans.

It’s the exclusivity factor that takes Jacob’s channel from 2.3 million subscribers to 4 million. The AdSense is doing wonders to his bank account, and the amount of sponsorships he’s been offered in the past two months is insane. He’s been getting love calls from labels, offering him contracts and albums and tours if he signs with them. (He still hasn’t accepted any offers, but this one from Transparent Arts that has been sitting on his email is really, really interesting.) Maybe this isn’t so bad after all.

* * *

For a while, things are quiet. Life goes on, with the occasional fanservice posts on their social media, those being either cute selfies of them together or Boomerangs on their Instagram stories. There isn’t much happening, to be honest; school and YouTube are still consuming their free time, they’re still neighbors and they still see each other a lot. Things are going smoothly, too smoothly. Jacob fears something bad will happen soon, like, heck, they’re 5 months into this social experiment and not even one thing has gone wrong so far. That’s for sure going to backfire somehow. He doesn’t know how soon, but probably soon enough for him to worry about it. Imagine being caught in a lie after going along with it for so long, literal weeks before they announce to the internet they’ve been fooled by two guys on YouTube.

Time is passing by too fast with life and work and keeping his mental health at check-in the midst of being a top student by day and internet star by night. Jacob has lost complete track of time. Before he realizes, it’s rainy November and the prospect of their official breakup being announced to the public being due in just a few weeks scares the heck out of him. They have yet to discuss how they will tell the truth to the world, and Jacob isn’t looking forward to that, being called a liar and a scammer and losing a considerable chunk of his new subscribers for, well, doing everything they will probably accuse him of. The possibility of going from one of the most beloved personalities to being cancelled and exposed as a money-hungry con artist from night to day is definitely there, and it scares him. However, there’s still time before the announcement, so he tries not to think too hard about it.

(It doesn’t really work.)

Jacob blocks all the negative thoughts and focuses on work and school instead.

* * *

The thing with posting intimate details of your fabricated relationship online is that it’s never just _them_. It’s not just Jacob and Kevin talking to a camera about their relationship and doing couple things for their couple vlogs and just having fun with each other; they’re sharing such a bit part of their lives with complete strangers on the internet, things that are so intimate and inherently personal that it’s hard not to expect their audiences to eventually get attached to the idea of them together. It’s not just Jacob and Kevin and their relationships, but their entire audiences and the internet combined now feel like they’re a part of it. And the thing with sharing these stories and these personal facts about yourself is that people get invested into these relationships as if they were their owns, or as if it was a friend’s. For people who create content like Kevin, posting vlogs of their daily lives, it’s almost as if you know the creators you watch online.

This is why breaking the news that MoonBae is over is so hard. Jacob stares at his laptop screen, eyes lost somewhere in the upload page, tired of editing. The title of his next video reads: we broke up. It’s short, simple, no exaggerations; there’s no room for second guessing or doubting what he means. His subscribers will know what it means. Kevin’s subscribers will know what it means. He knows the reaction will be mostly understanding; people are going to be sad their favorite internet couple broke up, but they will wish Jacob a speedy recovery to his broken heart and hope they can still be friends after.

Jacob checks his phone out of pure habit, staring at the message he got from his newly hired manager to look at his social media. He turned off social media notifications from his phone a while ago, so he doesn’t really see notifications that aren’t calls or texts; heck, if he had notifications on, he’d probably go insane. He first checks Twitter, but his timeline is full of ads and retweets only. Then he checks Instagram. His notification tab is busier than usual, constantly refreshing with more and more notifications. Thousands of people seem to be mentioning his username in — well, you guessed it! — Kevin’s Instalive, which isn’t really all that weird. Out of curiosity, he decides to open it and watch it.

The first thing he notices is that Kevin seems to be walking; he sounds out of breath, like he’s running up a flight of stairs, and the camera is shaky. Oh, well. He’s down the hallway from Jacob’s apartment.

“Okay, so.” A sigh. “Basically, I fucked up and asked my best friend to pretend to be my boyfriend because, well, I’m an idiot and I thought this would be a good idea for us to realize our feelings for each other as we do in those fanfics you guys tag me in all the time. Yes, I read MoonBae fanfiction, judge me for it! I mean, that’s not really important, but whatever. I always _knew_ that I liked Jacob, and I was pretty sure the feeling was mutual, and even though I spent the last 6 months basically professing my undying love for him, he still hasn’t realized I like him because he thinks all this was when in reality was just an excuse so that I could hold his hand in public without having him tell me it’s weird for friends to hold hands. Jacob is an idiot, this is literally the most cliché thing to ever happen in literature, and for someone who reads so much, he surely doesn’t know how to read between the lines. So I decided to take you guys with me on this little run down to. Oh. He’s watching, guys, keep it PG, please, I’m about to confess my feelings for my crush. Hi, Jake. Can you open the door, please? I have no pants on and I don’t want the security guys to sell lengthy videos of me walking around the corridors in my underwear.”

There’s a knock on his door. It’s him.

“I can’t believe you just called me an idiot in a fucking livestream, you absolute buffoon.”

Kevin laughs, boxy and charming and so full of shit.

_Jacob wants to kiss the living crap out of him._

“Jacob Bae. Will you-”

“Yes. Absolutely yes. You don’t even have to ask. The answer is yes.”

Kevin smiles against Jacob’s mouth and kisses him.

* * *

Things do end quite well for them, all in all. Their love life still isn’t a Twitter AU about YouTuber best friends who pulled a very successful publicity stunt on their audiences and ended up falling in love somewhere along the way before coming clean, or a classic friends to lovers fanfiction on AO3, but hey. This is the happy ending Jacob prayed so much to Twitter AU gods for.

They’re still Kevin and Jacob, revolutionary best friends and neighbors and _boyfriends_, with the addition of MoonBae — MoonBae won the poll on Jacob’s Twitter with a whopping 50% of the votes, so yes, KevCob is absolutely horrible and can choke for all Jacob cares — to their list of nicknames. Commentary channels nicknamed them the couple who broke the internet with their very well pulled publicity stunt that ended in a real romantic relationship between the two masterminds behind it. Their fans love how MoonBae’s relationship is seemingly something that walked out straight of an AO3 fanfiction. They’re still Kevin and Jacob, but they’re also MoonBae now, YouTube’s gay parents and everyone’s OTP.

There are many nice things about being a real, official couple, like sharing the juiciest details of their relationships with their followers and watching their fanbases simultaneously lose their shits whenever they do as little as insinuate things about what goes on in their lives off-camera, and be openly (and disgustingly) in love so they can show the entire world how beautiful them and their relationship are. Being #hashtag _couple goals _isn’t all that bad if they stop to think about it; not to be arrogant, but they _do_ look really cute together_. _Showcasing their love for each and being gross and mushy is possibly the closest they’ll ever get to an act of public service, though they can’t deny that the fame — as well as new subscribers, more comments, increased watch time and videos that hit the YouTube algorithm jackpot and the trending page, even — that came along their newfound relationship isn’t all _too_ bad.

Being the internet’s hottest couple isn’t too bad either.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time writing a fake dating AU, and also MoonBae! There is some underlying criticism I thought it would make sense include since this fic is about a social experiment; I took much of it from what I see some of the YouTubers I watch talk about. I know it's not exactly what you asked for, I really hope I did your request justice and I hope you liked it! Thank you for reading! Leave a comment telling me what you think if you can, it would be very much appreciated! Thanks again ♡
> 
> Post-reveal notes: [@yurain](https://archiveofourown.org/users/yurain/) did a [lovely edit](https://twitter.com/hosheeet/status/1173021409209196546) inspired by this fic that you should definitely check out. Thank you so much for the love this fic received, I definitely was not expecting this amount of feedback! Thank you thank you thank you ♡♡♡


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